Selkie443

I like the look of panels 1 and 6 with the character layers turned off.

Also, bit of an announcement. I think I am long past due for a reader meet-and-greet opportunity, and I’d like to arrange it with a bit more notice than I gave for the St. Louis trip (less than 24 hours notice, it turns out, is bad. XD) So, I’ve decided that I will do a day trip to Anime Central on Saturday May 17. I won’t have an Artist Alley presence or anything like that unfortunately, but I’ll make my presence known. Most likely by planting myself in a common area and tweeting the location. More details closer to the day (I should probably make an announcement image for the sidebar too… XD)

If you can make it, I’d love a chance to meet-and-greet with Selkie readers, even if only for a bit. I’ll try to get some small give-aways for the event too. So… Swag. 😀 More details closer to May!

Honestly I think you under did the emotional reaction panels. Then again I think that if you want to convey big emotions having a mushroom cloud in the background is the best way to do it in comics so what do I know?

Sadly, there’s a great many people who think avoiding someone is bullying them. I got a false accusation of harassment at work and when I got yelled at by the manager and then asked what I would do to make up for my bad behavior, I said I won’t speak to him no problem. Because obviously he doesn’t want me near him.

I had to hear for thirty minutes about how that itself is a type of harassment and making it a hostile work environment for the poor little liar. I told him that I don’t like getting in trouble for something I didn’t do and ignoring his existence was too good for him. Almost got fired for that.

Some people honestly believe any reaction to a bully really is just bullying them.

Actually this is fairly common psychological warfare for girls of that age. I remember similar situations in my elementary school and I’ve even witnessed a few situations along this line in my child’s school (k-5th). Little girls are vicious and use peer pressure and mind games far more often than adults give them credit for.

Oh yes. This isn’t unusual at all. Though Heather’s not just an innocent pawn here, either – she knows full well she’s making Keisha choose, and she’s doing it intentionally to get even with Amanda.

Having Keisha there may backfire on the non-orphan girls. She may notice their manipulation of Heather and say something. She is not terribly sophisticated at figuring out all this moral-dilemmas stuff, but she’s shown she will draw the line and resist social pressure when it comes to something that’s obviously wrong.

Ohhhhh yes. They’ll do it and think nothing of it, for even very little things. Even when it doesn’t mean the end of a friendship. It’s used like a slap in the face, except it’s easier to get away with it around the grown-ups who are only half paying attention.

Annie has a toy that Kelly wants?
Kelly’s jealous?
Well Kelly doesn’t need to ask nicely, noooo. If Kelly doesn’t fork it over, she can just play a game with all of Annie’s friends and leave her out. Take that, Annie! You can play with your toy alone!

Part of it is being mean. If a kid makes you mad, as a little one, you have the impulse to make her feel what you felt. The bigger part, though, is they don’t know how much playing this game can really hurt their friendships. Even Annie’s unwitting friends playing ring-around-the-rosie with Kelly don’t realize how much trust they’re losing in the long run.

Loyalty is learned. Kids CAN learn it from experience, after seeing all this go on and realizing it’s no good. But it’s hard to have enough faith in anyone else’s loyalty to bother, after seeing so much casual backstabbing.

It’s a failing of society, really, and people not watching their kids closely enough to keep this behavior in check. But really, how CAN they watch them when the kids are at public school all the time, being “supervised” in over-crowded classrooms by over-worked teachers?